WhatsApp beta for Android now lets users track how many times their message has been forwarded

The latest version of WhatsApp for Android beta is now available for beta testers and brings in a few new features. Thanks to the folks at WABetaInfo for taking time to dig through the beta update to find out these new inclusions, we now know that WhatsApp will let users track how many times their message has been forwarded and even add a ‘Frequently forwarded’ label on messages that are sent to others more than four times. These features have been discovered in the latest Android beta build v2.19.80 of the app. Of course, you will have to manually enable these features for them to work, otherwise you won’t be able to see them.

The beta update brings two new features called Forwarding Info and Frequently Forwarded. As mentioned earlier, these aren’t available yet and WhatsApp is just testing them at the moment. A future stable release should include them though. The Forwarding Info feature allows users to see more details about a forwarded message. You can see details such as Read Time, Delivered time, and number of forwards. This will only work for sent messages, and not for the ones you receive.

This is similar to the regular info feature that is available for all sent messages, expect, this one shows additional information. The next new feature is called Frequently Forwarded and does exactly as the name suggests. If a message is forwarded more than four times, then that message is labelled as frequently forwarded. The new features aren’t anything spectacular, but will let a user about the popularity of a forwarded message. Sometimes, the messages that have been forwarded too many times could turn out to be spam or fake news.

WhatsApp has been including features to curb all the fake and incorrect news spread via the app. The previous beta update had a hidden feature that allowed users to search for images on Google to confirm if it’s real or fake. None of these features have appeared on stable WhatsApp versions yet, but it shouldn’t take much longer now. These new features will definitely be helpful to reduce the number of fake news spread via WhatsApp.

As mentioned in the beginning, these new features will not be visible to the average user, even if you are on the latest WhatsApp beta.

Having dedicated over six years on writing about consumer electronics and enlightening the readers on every new gadget on the block, Sid has traced the evolution of smartphones. He also loves cars, listening to music, driving, and a little bit of PUBG. When not writing, he can be found relaxing and watching movies or travelling.